Triangular vane for a split drum dryer

ABSTRACT

A DOMESTIC CLOTHES DRYER HAS A CLOTHES DRYING ENCLOSURE WITHIN A CABINET. THE CLOTHES DRYING ENCLOSURE FOR TUMBLING CLOTHES IS SUBSTANTIALLY FORMED BY A ROTATABLE HORIZONTAL CYLINDRICAL DRUM IS CONJUNCTION WITH STATIONARY FRONT AND BACK WALLS OF THE CABINET. THE DRUM HAS THREE TRIANGULARSHAPED VANES THEREON TO PREVENT WEDGING OF THE CLOTHES BETWEEN THE ENDS OF THE VANE AND THE STATIONARY WALLS AND TO PREVENT BALLING OF THE CLOTHES DURING TUMBLING.

June 1971 F. M. GRABEK TRIANGULAR VANE FOR A SPLIT DRUM DRYER Filed Oct. 31, 1969 INVENTOR. fiederic/f 7/7. firaek ATTORNEY 3,584,394 TRTANGULAR VANE FOR A SPLIT DRUM DRYER Frederick M. Grabek, Kettering, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich. Filed Oct. 31, 1969, Ser. No. 872,903 Int. Cl. F261) 11/02 US. Cl. 34-133 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A domestic clothes dryer has a clothes drying enclosure Within a cabinet. The clothes drying enclosure for tumbling clothes is substantially formed by a rotatable horizontal cylindrical drum in conjunction with stationary front and back walls of the cabinet. The drum has three triangularshaped vanes thereon to prevent wedging of the clothes between the ends of the vane and the stationary walls and to prevent balling of the clothes during tumbling.

This invention relates to a domestic clothes dryer having a rotatable open-ended tumbling drum whose open ends are closed by stationary panels and more particularly to a triangular-shaped vane in conjunction with the drum.

A major consideration in the domestic appliance industry is the efiicient utilization of the internal volume of a domestic appliance cabinet whereby greater working capacities can be obtained without an increase in size of the external cabinet. The external cabinet of an independent clothes dryer must enclose a clothes treatment enclosure, prime mover means, and an air flow duct system. Many attempts have been made to arrange these parts so as to provide a clothes treatment enclosure of the highest volume possible without increasing the overall external cabinet size. One such attempt is disclosed in copending and commonly assigned application Ser. No. 872,822, filed Oct. 31, 1969 wherein a unique clothes treatment enclosure and air passageway construction provides an efiicient utilization of the internal volume of the dryer cabinet.

Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide a triangular-shaped clothes-lifting vane in a domestic clothes dryer having a clothes treatment enclosure substantially formed by a rotatable, open-ended, generally cylindrical tumbling drum closed at each end respectively by stationary front and rear Walls.

A more specific object of the invention is the provision of a triangular-shaped lifting-vane in a domestic clothes drying enclosure having a rotatable intermediate cylindrical imperforate portion, a stationary rear :portion with perforate means for admitting air near the top thereof and a stationay front portion with perforate means for exhausting air near the bottom thereof.

A still more specific object of the invention is the provision of a triangular-shaped vane in an open-ended horizontal tumbling drum whose open ends are closed by stationary walls, and wherein said triangular-shaped vane has base ends respectively adjacent the stationary walls and an apex defining an angle of substantially 120.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein the preferred embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view with parts cut away of the clothes dryer of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view with parts cut away to show the clothes treatment enclosure of the clothes dryer of the present invention;

nited States Patent 3,584,394 Patented June 15, 1971 ice FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the triangular-shaped vane and adjacent dryer structure; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of the vane taken along line 44 in FIG. 3.

In accordance with this invention and with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a domestic dryer 2 having an outer casing 4 is illustrated. The outer casing 4 has a front wall or panel 10, a rear wall or panel 12, and side walls or panels 14 and 16. The front panel 10 has an upper vertical portion 20 and a lower slanted portion 22. Extending across the top of the dryer is a top Wall 18. These surfaces define the enclosing outer casing or cabinet of the clothes dryer.

THE CLOTHES DRYING CHAMBER Located within this outer casing 4 is the clothes treatment enclosure or drying chamber 6. The clothes treatment enclosure 6 is of four parts and it is generally defined by the front wall 10 of the casing, an interfitting threepart stationary front collar means 24, an intermediate horizontally mounted rotatable cylinder or open-ended steel drum 26, and a stationary rear wall 12 of the outer casing. The cylinder 26 has two coats of paint and carries three plastic vanes 27 which are of triangular shape and spaced approximately apart. These vanes will be described more particularly hereinafter.

The cylindrical drum 26 is supported by four rollers 28 and adapted thereby for rotation about a horizontal axis through the open ends of the drum. A pair of rollers located on each side of the drum 26 is rotatably mounted on a shaft 29 rigidly positioned by a support bracket 30 fastened to the dryer front wall 10 and back wall 12. The stationary front collar means 24 of the clothes treatment enclosure 6 is formed of three molded plastic parts. They are control or component pocket parts 24a and 24b, and lint filter housing part 240. These three parts are molded phenolic and are joined together to form one continuous annular stationary collar which attaches to the top and side edges of the front wall 10 of the dryer. The front wall 10 is provided with a recessed shoulder 31 to which the lint filter housing part 240 attaches as by ported bosses 25. A sealing member 35 rests on the shoulder adjacent the attachment points for the filter housing and defining with the front wall 10 a dryer access opening 32. This dryer access opening 32 is provided with an access door 34 pivotally mounted at one side thereof and openable for loading and unloading the drum. The door is formed with a front panel 34a and rear panel 34b, both of which panels may be acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. The rear panel 34b is bulged inwardly to feed the clothes along with the lint filter housing part 240 toward the rotating drum 26. Both the rear panel of the door and the lint filter housing present stationary surfaces to the clothes drying chamber when the drum 26 is rotating. The three part stationary front portion 24 of the collar means generally encircles the access opening 32 and includes a cylindrical, rearwardly extending stationary sealing edge 36 which conforms to the diameter of the tumbling drum 26 but is slightly spaced therefrom.

The front edge of the drum 26 mates with the rear sealing edge 36 to form a first gap 37 (FIG. 3). The gap 37 is bridged and closed by a T-shaped seal member comprising a fiat felt portion 38 and an inwardly directed rib portion 39. The felt seal portion 38 is also cylindrical and extends around and covers the front edge of the drum 26 and the rear edge 36 of the collar means 24. The rib portion 39 of the seal member extends inwardly between the drum 26 and the collar sealing edge 36. This rib member 39 is made of a synthetic polyester fiber, sold under the trade name Dacron, and is sewn to the inside of the felt portion 38. This rib effectively shields the clothes from contacting the felt seal and collecting felt lint or from touching the edges of the relatively rotating parts. The felt seal portion 38 is fastened to the rotating drum 26 by means of a metallic band 33 which circumscribes the felt portion of the seal overlying the front edge of the drum 26. This metallic band and seal are fastened to the drum 26 by means of a plurality of sheet metal screws 21 which insert concealingly through the cylinder into the interior of the vanes 27. Thus, the seal member rotates with the cylinder 26.

THE LINT FILTER HOUSING The lint filter housing part 24c of the stationary front collar 24 substantially encircles the lower portion of the front access opening 32 beneath said access door 34 and includes a depending leg portion 40 (FIG. 1) which extends downwardly and rearwardly along the slanted front wall portion 22 forming therewith an exhaust duct 48. A plurality of perforations 42 are provided in the lint filter housing to place the clothes drying chamber 6 in air flow communication with the exhaust duct 48. The perforated portion of the housing 24c is slanted in line with the bulged inner door panel 34b to continuously deflect clothes toward the rotatable drum 26 during tumbling.

The upper edge of the housing 240 has an elongated rectangular slot behind the access opening 32. A substantially fiat lint filter 46 is insertable through the elongated slot to a position in front of the perforations 42. A band spring 41 urges the lint filter 46 into a snug full air flow intercepting relationship with the back side of the perforated wall of the housing 24c.

THE HEATER HOUSING Dryer structure at the rear of the tumbling drum 26 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The upper portion of the rear panel 12 is provided with an indented portion 50 providing a semi-circular raised surface which forms the inner wall of a heater housing 51. The rear panel 12 is also indented or embossed to include an internal rib 52 which is also semi-circular in shape. The external peripheral surfaces of the indented portion 50 and the rib 52 join to form a circular ledge or sealing edge 54 of substantially the same diameter as the drum 26. The rear edge of the drum 26 is spaced from the circular sealing edge 54 of the rear panel 12 to form a second gap 55. This second gap 55 is closed by a second seal member 38'-39' identical to the first seal member 38-39 and retained on the drum by an identical steel band 33' and screw 21. The seal member 38'39' rotates with the drum 26 to prevent overheating thereof by heaters 62 within the heater housing 51. For additional details on the structure of the clothes dryer, reference may be had to the aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 872,822.

THE CLOTHES TUMBLING SYSTEM The rear panel 12 within the circular sealing edge 54, the drum 26, the stationary collar means 24 and the inside surface of the front panel within the collar form the clothes treatment enclosure 6. The drum 26 is rotated by a belt 84 around its midsection driven by a motor 76. Air is withdrawn from the drum by a blower 78 through the perforations 42 in the lint filter housing beneath the door. Heated air enters the drum through perforations 58 on the underside of the heater housing 51 but in the upper half of the drum. Thus a rather diagonal air flow occurs from the top rear of the drum to the bottom front during a drying cycle.

Clothes are inserted into the drying chamber 6 through the access opening 32 and are tumbled when the drum 26 is rotated. The slant of the door portion 34b and the lint collecting housing 24c together with the rear panel 12 to the cylinder 26 cooperate to keep the clothes within the confines of the tumbling drum 26 along the bottom thereof. As aforesaid, the seals members 38-39 and 3839, within the gaps 37 and 55 respectively, prevent clothes from being snagged by the drum 26 or linted by the felt. These seal members also impede air leakage into the drum along the rotating seal. As the drum rotates, the clothes are lifted and dropped by the vanes 27. Some portions of the clothes are constantly wiping the stationary surfaces of the collar means 24 at the front of the chamber 6 as as well as the stationary surfaces of the rear panel 12 at the rear of the chamber. Such wiping action has a tendency to twist and wedge the clothes. The triangular shape of the baflies or vanes 27 substantially overcomes this tendency and prevents clothes from being wedged between the vane and the back wall 12. The triangular shape of the vane also helps to overcome balling of the clothes load brought about by the twisting tendency of the clothes when tumbled between stationary surfaces.

THE TRIANGULAR VANE Each of the triangular vanes 27 is hollow and molded of polypropylene to a wall thickness of 0.090 inch. Each vane has a front base end 45, a rear base end 47 and an apex 49. The base ends are formed with outside radii of 0.48 inch. The apex has an outside radius of 1.00 inch along its longitudinal axis (FIG. 3) and 0.26 inch along its transverse axis (FIG. 4). An included angle A of at the apex with an angle B of 30 between the base and the sides of vane at each base end provides the most effective triangular configuration for keeping clothes unballed during tumbling. The low profile presented to the clothes during tumbling at the base ends 45,, 47 minimizes wedging of the clothes between the vane ends and the adjacent stationary structure, such as the rear panel 12 and the lint filter housing 240.

The foregoing preferred triangular configuration defines an isosceles triangle which may be adapted for installation on tumbling drums of different size. For instance, in the embodiment disclosed the drum 26 is about twenty-three inches in diameter and about eleven inches long. The vane 27 in such an environment is most effective with the angular relationships established above if the heighth C of the vane is 3.38 inches. In tumbling drums of larger diameter and length the heighth of the vane will be increased but the angular relationships of A and B remain. Thus as the heighth of the vane is increased so too the length of the vane to accommodate the increased length of the bigger tumbling drum.

Each of the vanes is hollow in the main but includes strengthening ribs 53 for rigidifying the vane and for receiving screws 57 adapted for connection to plastic. In addition to the screws 57 each vane is located on the drum 26 by the drum roller grooves 88. For this purpose each vane is formed with complementary grooves 59 which nest over the roller grooves of the drum.

OPERATION In operation the motor 76 will rotate the drum 26 and drive the blower 78. The vanes 27 lift the clothes and releave them again the drop through the stream of heated air which flows from the perforations 58 of the heater housing to the perforations 42 of the lint filter housing. Only the drum and attached vanes present a moving surface to the clothes. To the front of the drum is the stationary collar means including the lint filter housing. To the rear of the drum is the stationary rear panel. As the clothes drop, partly on the moving drum and partly on the stationary lint filter housing, for instance, a slight twist is imparted to the clothes. The twist is minimized by the base ends 45, 47 of the vane which are too low to wedge the clothes against the lint filter housing. Twisting has a tendency to cause clothing fabric to wrap around itself into a ball. Such balling impedes the flow of drying air currents through the fabric and increases the drying time necessary to complete a cycle. The apex of the vane, however, reaches into the mass of clothes being tumbled and resists the tendency to twist, thereby maintaining the clothes in a substantially unballed, tangle-free condition throughout the clothes drying cycle.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is:

1. A domestic clothes dryer comprising an enclosing outer cabinet including a stationary front panel and access door and a stationary rear panel, an air flow duct system within said cabinet, said air flow duct system including a clothes treatment enclosure extending from said front panel and access door to the inside surface of said rear panel, said clothes treatment enclosure defined by a portion of the inside surface of said front panel and access door, stationary collar means fixed with relation to said front panel and access door, an open-ended cylindrical drum and the inside surface of said rear panel, said drum mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis through the open ends of said drum, prime mover means for rotating said drum and impelling air through said air fiow duct system, said collar means having a stationary sealing edge in close proximity to one open end of said drum to form a first gap, said rear panel having a stationary sealing edge in close proximity to the other open end of said drum to form a second gap, first seal means closing said first gap between said collar means and said cylinder, second seal means closing said second gap between said rear panel and said other open end of said cylinder, said collar means having one portion connecting with said prime mover means and forming with the inside surface of said front panel beneath said access door an exhaust passageway for said air flow duct system, said one portion of said collar means including perforations to provide air flow communication between said clothes treatment enclosure and said exhaust passageway, said rear panel within the sealing edge thereof including perforations to provide air flow communication between said clothes treatment enclosure and an external source of heat, and a vane afiixed to said drum for lifting and dropping clothes when the drum is rotating, said vane comprising an isosceles triangle-shaped configuration having its base ends along its longitudinal axis extending axially from said one open end of the drum to said other open end, said vane when said drum is rotating having one base end thereof positioned repeatedly adjacent said one portion of said collar means and the other base end thereof positioned continuously adjacent said rear panel and the apex thereof projecting radially toward said horizontal axis, said apex of said vane forming with said base ends an included angle of substantially 120 whereby the heighth of said vane at said apex is in direct relation to the distance between the open ends of said drum, the base ends of said vane adapted to minimize the twist on the clothes and thus the balling thereof resulting from the relative movement between said drum and said stationary rear panel and collar means, and the apex of said vane adapted to offset twist in the clothes resulting from said relative movement thereby to maintain the clothes in a substantially unballed, tangle-free condition.

2. A domestic clothes dryer comprising an enclosing outer cabinet including a stationary front panel and access door and a stationary rear panel, an air flow duct system within said cabinet, said air fiow duct system including a clothes treatment enclosure extending from said front panel and access door to the inside surface of said rear panel, said clothes treatment enclosure defined by a portion of the inside surface of said front panel and access door, stationary collar means fixed with relation to said front panel and access door, an open-ended cylindrical drum and the inside surface of said rear panel, said drum mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis through the open ends of said drum, prime mover means for rotating said drum and impelling air through said air flow duct system, means for sealing between said collar means and one open end of said drum, means for sealing between said rear panel and the other open end of said drum, said collar means having one portion connecting with said prime mover means beneath said access door and forming an exhaust passageway for said air flow duct system, said one portion of said collar means including perforations to provide air flow communication between said clothes treatment enclosure and said exhaust passageway, said rear panel including perforations to provide air flow communication between said clothes treatment enclosure and an external source of heat, a vane for lifting and dropping clothes when the drum is rotating, said vane comprising a base affixed to said drum and an apex form ing with said base a triangular-shaped member along its longitudinal axis extending axially from one open end of the drum to the other open end, said vane when said drum is rotating having one base end thereof positioned adjacent said one portion of said collar means and the other base end thereof positioned adjacent said rear panel and the apex thereof projecting radially toward said horizontal axis, said apex forming with said base ends an included angle of substantially the base ends of said vane adapted to minimize the twist on the clothes and thus the balling thereof resulting from the relative movement between said drum and said stationary rear panel and collar means, and the apex of said vane adapted to offset twist in the clothes resulting from said relative movement thereby to maintain the clothes in a substantially unballed, tangle-free condition.

3. A domestic clothes dryer comprising an enclosing outer cabinet including a stationary front panel and access door and a stationary rear panel, an air flow duct system within said cabinet, said air flow duct system including a clothes treatment enclosure extending from said front panel and access door to the inside surface of said rear panel, said clothes treatment enclosure defined by a portion of the inside surface of said front panel and access door, stationary collar means fixed with relation to said front panel and access door, an open-ended cylindrical tumbling drum and the inside surface of said rear panel, said drum mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis through the open ends of said drum, prime mover means for rotating said drum and impelling air through said air flow duct system, means for sealing between said collar means and one open end of said drum, means for sealing between said rear panel and the other open end of said drum, said collar means having one portion connecting with said prime mover means and forming an air passageway for said air flow duct system, said one portion of said collar means including perforations to provide air flow communication between said clothes treatment enclosure and said air passageway, said rear panel including perforations to provide air flow communication between said clothes treatment enclosure and the atmosphere, a vane for lifting and dropping clothes when the drum is rotating, said vane comprising a base aflixed to said drum and an apex forming with said base a triangularshaped member along its longitudinal axis extending axially between the open ends of said drum, said vane when said drum is rotating having one base end thereof positioned adjacent said one portion of said collar means and the other base end thereof positioned adjacent said rear panel and the apex thereof projecting radially toward said horizontal axis, said apex forming with said base ends an included angle of substantially 120, the base ends of said vane adapted to minimize the twist on the clothes and thus the balling thereof resulting from the relative movement between said drum and said stationary rear panel and collar means, and the apex of said vane adapted to offset twist in the clothes resulting from said relative movement thereby to maintain the clothes in a substantially unballed, tangle-free condition.

4. The domestic clothes dryer of claim 3 wherein the perforations in said collar means are beneath said hori- 8 zontal axis of said tumbling drum and the perforations of said sealing means to said drum for rotation therewith, said rear panel are above said horizontal axis. Said screw means extending into the hollow of said vane.

5. The domestic clothes dryer of claim 3 wherein said tumbling drum is substantially twenty-three inches in Refeences Cited diameter by eleven inches long and the projection of 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS sald apex is about three and one-half inches. 2,887,735 5/ 1959 Raley 6. The domestic clothes dryer of claim 3 wherein the vane is hollow and including screw means for fastening CARROLL B. DORITY, JR., Primary Examiner 

